So many wonderous things have happened since i last posted.
I decided that it was most important to live in the moment of my travels rather than be tied to this crazy net thing..
my voyage has taken a most unexpected twist since i crashed(literally) in Dresden after leaving the Berlin zoo.
its name is Sven.
we spent a week of pure magic together and have been biking together ever since.
It is a strange feeling to have a companion. Mostly because it is only now that I truly realize that I have never really been alone at all.
My independence was much greater than I imagined, and I have grown used to flying whimsically without borders.
Being with this darling boy is thus teaching me much about consideration and compromise in ways I had forgotten to be mindful of.
After a first initial week of stars and fireworks, being a joint entity proved to be quite challenging for me as we entered beautiful Prague and I was yearning to meet everyone who crossed my path, but felt obliged to my partner.
Perhaps this is indeed very selfish, as I have never felt so free as when I am a solitary cowgirl with nothing but her trusty wheely-steed...
Playing with space and personal limits is good, and now I am very happy to have such a lovely partner in crime to take on Eastern Europe.
Crossing into Eastern Europe is when I have finally begun to see a unique and humbling side of humanity. One that only keeps growing on you. like warm and fuzzy moss, that has taken yeeears to turn green and precious, this untamed land is full of hidden jewels..
i think my heart is still rolling up and down the backroads of czech republic, constantly bumping into old eccentric folk with talking eyes and uncanny hobbit-like characters, whose vivid gestures, kind and understanding smiles, and eagerness could tell more than fairytales of this wild and quirky country.
Our first night just outside Litomerice, CZ portrayed this perfectly. After a hundred km of biking, we found a nice orchard on the top of a hill where we decided to pitch our tent, assuming it was not private property. at the top, we stumbled upon a cute country house surrounded by a beautiful garden filled a huge family of animals- ducks, geese, cats, dogs, chickens, and in the nidst of them all, a tiny little woman tending zealously to her flowerbeds. Marie chattered and pointed and laughed as she tried to explain to us in her language that we were most welcome to camp where we liked, and that she had many special wonders to share with us in her home. After proudly introducing us to her host of newborn kittens, sprawled all over her kitchen, we sat in awed silence as she served us some tea and ferevntly insisted that we eat an entire cake she had baked. Then, she made a funny clucking sound and pulled me over to a dark room at the back of her cottage. She opened the door a crack and motioned to me with huge eyes to stay very quiet. we peeped inside and suddenly a graceful swallow swooped into a nest on the wall, the size of a big hornet's nest.
The stale yet spicy smell of this old higgelty-pigglety cottage, and Marie's seventy-four year-old animated agile hands I'll never forget.
Since CZ, following a few days of biking up mad demon hills, we had some sweeeeeeeet cruising descents all the way to Austria, where we then caught up with the infamous Donau(Danube) River bikeway, a popular route among european cyclo-tourists. This flat route led us straight to Bratislava, Slovakia. What I found most crazy at this time was the realization that we had biked through nearly THREE countries in ONE day(we intentionally stopped in Austria for the experience), whereas in big ol Canada, I couldn't even cycle Ottawa-Montreal in a day!
Despite a lovely ride into the city, the feeling in Bratislava was simply...wierd.
Both Sven and I had much difficulty trying to describe the feeling of detachment from this newly-industrialized city. One that seems so very lost within this dense open river valley, yet was intent on joining the EU movement. after a night of live graffiti art and fireworks, we were ready to move onwards to Hungary.
We have now been in Budapest for four days and wish we could stay here all summer.
Budapest is a secret box full of surprises, and probably one of my favourite cities so far.
what is especially interesting and intriguing about this historically powerful place(the might of the Austro-Hungarian empire is so easily forgotten, due to the repercussions of communism on the country) is this omnipresent sentiment of nationalist pride for hungarian cultural roots.
You can see it in their faces, hear it in their mother tongue which, unlike other big cosmopolitan EU cities, is still the most prominent language and vividly distinct from other touristcentric capitals like Prague(where it is nearly imposssible to actually meet anyone czech in the main city).
For now I am finding myself in rising spirits, as i have started writing poetry once more after a long drought, and am feeling more inspired each new day by all the wonderful people I meet to keep creating art & community wherever I go...
madz looooove
there are so many impressions to share about all these places, and i look forward to bringing them back at the end of August.
Aha! this is also my most exciting bit of recent news: since meeting this delightful swiss woman in Amsterdam, I have been offered the opprotunity to possibly realize one of my grandest dreams...to work at a beautiful Free School on a mountain village outsude of Zurich!!! pinch me.
I am trying not to get my hopes up, and am very excited about visiting the school in any case (following two weeks in Berlin avec mon merveilleux papa:)!!!)
